As Samsung prepares to launch its upcoming Galaxy S9/S9+, there’s already a knock-off version spotted in the wild. In terms of design, it looks quite similar to the leaked renders and the gullible ones might be fooled into believing that this is the real deal.

By now, I’m sure most of you have seen a video making its rounds on social media, and even 9gag, about a guy with a robotic arm that he built in a garage to help him overcome the limitations of his paralysed left hand. Sounds amazing right?

Fake phones aren’t a new thing around our parts, with fake flagships circulating the market and even budget phones having no escape from getting counterfeited.

Earlier this year it was discovered that there were counterfeit OPPO phones floating around the market, with the brand themselves warning against buying the phones from non-legitimate sources. Now they’ve announced that they are in the process of cracking down on counterfeiters selling the cheaply priced clones and have published a video showing how to spot a fake OPPO N3. So far over 744 cases so far have been reported with fake phones ending up at OPPO’s service centers by the droves showing just how bad it has gotten.

Fake phones are a real issue. We’ve heard of a number of cases of people who’ve been duped thinking they got a great deal on a high-end phone only to find out later that the phone is a fake.

The makers of these fake phones have gotten so good that it’s difficult to tell the fakes from the real stuff so be weary of “too good to be true” deals promising high-end phones for cheap.

Speaking of cheap phones, the already good value for money Xiaomi Mi 4 now has a fake version and according GizChina that managed to get their hands on it, the fake Mi 4 — on the surface, at least — is a damn good knock-off complete with built-in IR blaster.

For US$150, the fake Mi 4 looks virtually identical to the original but when you get your hands on it, you’ll be able to tell that something’s not quite right. For starters the build quality is not as polished as the real deal (there’s quite a lot of light leak coming from the capacitive buttons and LCD panel), and then there’s the odd “No.1” logo o the back part where the Mi logo should be. Also, the specs is crap.

The fake Mi 4 gets an el-cheapo 1.3GHz quad-core processor and a paltry 1GB of RAM (versus a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 and 3GB RAM on the original Mi 4). The 5-inch display is a 720p unit instead of the full 1080p IPS panel you get in the original Mi 4. The battery capacity is much smaller as well at just 2,250mAh battery versus 3,080mAh in the Xiaomi Mi 4, and you get forget about LTE support as well.

You can check out full details of the fake Mi 4 here, and if you’re going to get a Mi 4, make sure it’s the real deal. There’s also a fake Redmi Note as well, so be careful

Someone had purchased a unit from a seller on Mudah which claims to be an original unit. After using it for a while, he noticed something very strange and had discovered that he had been ripped off. Obviously not happy of being cheated, he had uploaded a video highlighting the key differences between a genuine Redmi Note versus the fake imitation copy to serve as warning to others.

Head after the break to find out how to check if a Redmi Note is fake.

The replica kings are at it again. Before the iPhone 6 is officially announced, its cheap imitation units have appeared looking like the leaked designs we’ve seen so far. Nobody knows for sure if the real iPhone 6 would look anything like this but it is convincing enough for the regular joe. At some photos, it looks badly put together with some screws being exposed at the bottom. On the surface, it appears to be running on iOS but you can be sure that it isn’t the real deal underneath.

Don’t be surprise to find such devices to appear in Malaysia. Earlier on, we’ve seen a very good replica of the Galaxy S5 which looked 99% exactly like the genuine unit.

China is unfortunately often labeled as the land that makes pretty good fakes. We’ve seen a number of knockoffs that offer identical looking designs but normally comes with rather low level internals. With the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 being one of the most sought after Android smart phone right now, it is not surprising that the replica experts are making one as well.

Now a company called Goophone, not only made a Galaxy Note 3 knockoff but they have even plonked in something better. Called simply as the Goophone N3, the exterior looks rather identical along with its faux leather back cover. However internally it is powered by a MediaTek 1.7GHz MT6592 Octa-Core processor which runs on all 8 cores simultaneously.

Other hardware specs include a decent 2GB of RAM, 16GB of on-board storage and even a similar 5.7″ Full HD display that does 1920×1080 pixels resolution. You’ll also get a 13MP rear camera and over at the front it comes with a bigger 5MP camera. It only supports 3G HSPA+ and the Goophone N3 comes with a 2,800mAh capacity battery.

With the emergence of fakes in the market, consumers have to be on alert if they spot deals that’s are simply too good to be true. When someone is selling something with a huge price gap from the real deal, that should raise some alarms. Some unscrupulous sellers could be taking advantage of unknowing buyers with such fakes.

The Goophone N3 will be going on sale in China sometime in December with the price tag of US$299.99, which is rather impressive for the hardware it comes with. The Note 3 replica isn’t the only model they are producing, as they have also listed their i5C and i5S models where both are selling below US$200.

The folks at GizmoChina has managed to get their hands on the N3 and you can check out their video after the break.

China, the land of possibilities, is showing us that it is indeed possible for you to get fakes of almost anything and everything there. Case in point, take a look at these Galaxy S III rip-offs.

Aside from looking very much like the original Samsung flagship smartphone, the Chinese fakes come in two versions, a low spec fake S III and a high spec version complete with a 4.8-inch, 720p display and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Even the fake box looks like the real one.

The low-end fake S III features a 4.7-inch 480×800 display, there’s also a 5-megapixel rear camera and a VGA front camera. A far cry from the quad-core powerhouse that is the real Galaxy S III, the fake low-end version is powered by a 1GHz processor with 512MB RAM and a paltry 4GB of on-board storage, running an ancient Android 2.3 OS. On top of that, the device looks to be much thicker than the original S III. The low-end fake S III is selling for US$209 or RM664 at today’s exchange rate.

The high-end fake S III features a non-Super AMOLED 4.8-inch 1280×720 display, an 8MP rear camera and 1.3MP front camera. There’s 1.2GHz dual-core MT6577 processor made by Taiwanese company MediaTek. The device comes with 1GB of RAM, an 16GB of on-board storage. You also get Android 4.0, TWO standard SIM card slots, a USB 2.0 port, and a 2500mAh Li-on battery. As if that’s not enough, the original accessories work with this knockoff of the S III. The device sells for US$272 or RM865 at today’s exchange range.

Would you get one? Why?

Head over to after the jump for some hands-on videos of the two devices.